Our online usage service is 5!

Our online food usage service - Foods Online - is 5 years old! To celebrate this milestone we looked into how our attitudes and the way we consume food is changing.

The end of some Brittish classics?

One striking trend is that some sterotypically "British" foods and drinks are waning, starting with the good old cuppa. We are drinking 174 swimming pools less tea than last year, and for the first time we are drinking more cold drinks than hot drinks.

Another British staple, the roast dinner is also seeing a marked effect. We are now having over 20% fewer roast dinners than we were 5 years ago.

That said, we still love sandwiches, and you’d need over 66 thousand Wembley stadiums to fit all the sandwiches consumed in Britain in a year.

And despite the return of Great British Bake Off to our screens this year, we're baking less - the number of times we put on a pinny is down by 23% since 2014.

Healthy appetite

Our attitudes to our health are changing so is our perception of the healthiness of different foods - in often surprising ways. For example we're now more likely to choose butter than magarine for health reasons and it's more important to us that we choose food and drinks that are “natural” than lower in fat, salt or sugar.

And, in good news for dentists around the country, we're eating fewer desserts: 517m fewer than in 2014.

Meat-free marches on

Related to changing ideas around health is the rise of people adopting a meat free diet, or eating meat less often. Some 4.7% of us are now vegetarian compared to 4.5% in 2013. And we're eating more protein-free evening meals, 113m fewer than in 2014.

About our Usage service

We believe that only if you understand how your product is used will you truly understand how to market to consumers. Kantar Worldpanel has over 30 years’ experience and expertise in Usage Panels giving us knowledge of how fast moving consumer goods are used, when and by whom they are consumed and even what other products were used in the same occasion.